Another View: Drug shortage harming children is shameful and unnecessary

Disgraceful. That's the best description of the findings of a study that shows unnecessary and damaging shortages of some cancer-treating drugs have led to relapses among some kids fighting cancer at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., and elsewhere.

It wasn't the hospital's fault. In fact, it was St. Jude that blew the whistle on this disgrace.A St. Jude investigator, Dr. Monika Metzger, led a team from Stanford University School of Medicine and Boston's Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, among others, in a study of what happens to children who lose access to a certain cancer-fighting drug and have to shift to substitute drugs during treatment.Often, the results are shocking. The children get much sicker. They suffer from more severe side effects. Sometimes their cancer returns.According to The Associated Press:"The study involved more than 200 children and young adults with a blood cancer called Hodgkin lymphoma. Like childhood leukemia, it can be cured nearly 80 percent of the time. But a drug shortage that has worsened since 2009 is threatening that success rate. ..."Hundreds of drugs, including sedatives, antibiotics, painkillers and cancer treatments, have gone in and out of short supply in recent years. Reasons include manufacturing and contamination problems, plant shutdowns, and fewer makers and lower profits for certain drugs, especially generics infused during surgery or cancer treatment."Doctors sometimes substitute different drugs for ones in short supply. But proving that the swaps led to poorer results has been tough, especially for cancer patients whose disease and response to treatment vary so much."The study ? gives the best evidence so far that patients are suffering. ..."Only 75 percent of those given the substitute drug stayed free of cancer for two years versus 88 percent who received the preferred treatment."'We can think of no credible explanation for this dramatic difference' other than the drug substitution, the authors wrote."No patients died, but those who relapsed were given more aggressive treatments, including stem-cell transplants that have more side effects and can harm fertility."It doesn't have to be that way. Stronger regulation and oversight of drug supplies, plus better product and inventory management by private drug manufacturers, could fix this problem.That kids are suffering needlessly because of glitches in our drug manufacturing processes is unacceptable.

---Commercial Appeal, Memphis, Tenn.

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Another View: Drug shortage harming children is shameful and unnecessary

Disgraceful. That's the best description of the findings of a study that shows unnecessary and damaging shortages of some cancer-treating drugs have led to relapses among some kids fighting cancer at